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I followed the iFixit guide to upgrade the hard drive in my 12" 800 mHz G4 iBook (iFixit: Do-it-yourself Mac & iPod Repair. Felt pretty confident about having followed instructions to the letter (no guessing about replacing screws, no forcing to close it back up, etc.).

When I rebooted, optical drive and hard drive seemed to be making all the rights sounds, but nothing came up on the screen. The new HD needed to be formatted and the OS installed, but I expected to see some sort of prompt. Am I right about that, or did I need to start with an OS install DVD in the optical drive? I don't believe there was any step in the upgrade process where I was messing with the display connector. Any ideas?

Next try was to reboot with the OS install DVD in the optical drive. But I was physically unable to insert the disc into the slot. The center area had an obstruction, although the sides seemed clear. The optical drive was empty when I started the disassembly. I think the center spindle, head or whatever it is called may be locked as if there were a disc inserted. Does that sound right, or might the whole mechanism not be fitted properly from the reassembly? I didn't need to remove the optical drive to do the HD replacement, and don't recall that any screws I removed/replaced were holding the optical drive. Also don't recall disconnecting it as part of the instructions. Any ideas?

Thanks for any advice (besides not trying to do this at home or letting a certified Mac tech do the job next time ;-)).

First, you were correct about having to restart the machine with the install media (DVD) in order to run Disk Utility and format the new drive.

As for the DVD drive itself, it would appear the mechanism is stuck at the eject cycle. That would prevent a disk from being inserted. Since the optical drive does not have to be removed or otherwise disassembled to change out the hard drive, that's the only thing I can think of.

Try using all the recommended methods for ejecting a stuck DVD from the drive. Perhaps that will force the optical drive to run through the eject cycle and then back to normal. If that doesn't work, you may be forced to return to the ifixit site and find out how to remove the optical drive. If the drive should prove to be defective, you will need to replace it with either an original or external drive.

If you go the external drive route, you will need to get one that has firewire support otherwise you will be unable to boot your iBook.

If you put a new hard drive in the iBook with on format .. with out cd of dvd .. you should see the gray screen with a folder in the middle with ? .. where the apple would normally be .. do you get the start up ding?

Have you tried resetting the pram and pmu?

To reset the PMU, hold down Shift-Control-Option-Power. you will get no power or any thing when you do this
To reset the PRAM, hold Apple-Option-P-R simultaneously immediately after the ding.

during disassemble you may have disconnected something? video cable. or something .. they are very tricky to get apart and put back .. believe me I know.

the cd/dvd should not have an issue due to you should not have even had to touch that part.. did a screw fall down in the slot?

when you boot up do the fans come on with hard drive and cd and nothing else?? thats a whole other issue..

I did boot from an external optical drive and learned that I HAD left a disc in there. I booted with the option key held and the screen came up. When I rebooted with the install disc in the iBook's drive the screen did this weird flickering thing for a few minutes and then grayed out. I rebooted with option key held (where the screen had displayed fine) and started install from there and then everything loaded fine.

I'm glad I didn't have to open up the case again -- that was pretty scarry...